"As a surgeon he was bold and fearless, ever willing to assume any legitimate responsibility, even though it took him into the undiscovered country of experiment. He did not do this rashly, but only when the stake was worthy of the risk. There is still living in Hanover a monument of Dr. Mussey's pluck and skill. This man had a large, ulcerated and bleeding nævus on the vertex of his head, which threatened a speedy death. There seemed no way to relieve the patient except by tying both carotids, which was regarded as an operation inevitably fatal. The danger was imminent, and as Dr. Mussey could see no way to untie the knot, he determined to cut it. He tied one carotid, and in twelve days tied the other, following both operations in a few weeks with a removal of the tumor. The recovery was perfect, and the case was, we believe, the first recorded instance where both carotids were successfully tied. This operation gave him great fame both at home and abroad.
"It is not my purpose to attempt an account of the surgery done by this eminent man, only to touch on some of its salient points. Thus he successfully removed an ovarian tumor, at a time when the operation had been done only a few times in the world. He removed a boy's tongue which measured eight inches in circumference, and projected five inches beyond the jaws, and the patient recovered.
"He removed the scapula and a large part of the clavicle at one operation, from a patient on whom he had amputated previously at the shoulder-joint. Dr. Mussey supposed that this was the first operation of the kind [as it was in some respects] in the history of Surgery.
"He several times removed the upper, and portions of the lower, jaw. Dr. Mussey kept no extended records of his operations, but I subjoin a few statements alike interesting to us and creditable to him.
"He performed the operation of lithotomy forty-nine times, and all the patients recovered but four. He operated for strangulated hernia forty times, and with a fatal result in only eight cases. He practiced subcutaneous deligation in forty cases of varicocele, and all were successful. Dr. Mussey operated four times for perineal fistula, twice for impermeable stricture of the urethra, and did a large number of plastic operations with the best results. He also successfully treated a recto-vaginal fistula.
"These are only a fraction of the innumerable operations which he did, yet they show results such as the greatest surgeons in the world would be proud to declare.
"But it is not alone as a surgeon that Dr. Mussey attained excellence. It was as an accurate observer that he early made himself known to the medical world. The habit of his mind was positive; he respected authority, and to the latest period of his life was assiduous in acquiring professional knowledge from books no less than from observation. He delighted to fortify himself in any given position by citing authorities, and always showed that he had informed himself exhaustively in the bibliography of the subject. Yet it was his habit to subject every medical statement to the most rigid tests. While pursuing his studies in Philadelphia, he joined issue with Dr. Rush on some of the physiological doctrines which were generally received at that time. This distinguished man had taught the doctrine of non-absorption by the skin. This was supposed to have been proved by an experiment in which a young man, confined in a small room, breathed through a tube running through the wall into the open air, the surface of the skin being rubbed at the same time with turpentine, asparagus, etc. As no odor of these substances was perceptible in the secretions, it was inferred that no absorption had taken place through the skin, and that it was impossible. Dr. Mussey, believing this doctrine to be fallacious, immersed himself in a strong solution of madder for three hours. He had the satisfaction of getting unmistakable evidence of the presence of madder in the secretions for two days, the addition of an alkali always rendering them red. He repeated this experiment with the same result, and made it the theme of a thesis on his graduation. Some of the Faculty who differed with Dr. Rush on the subject were much pleased with these experiments, and predicted even then for our friend a distinguished career."
Professor Mussey died at Boston June 21, 1866.
We quote from Dr. J. W. Barstow's obituary notice in the "New York Medical Journal," November, 1873, of Professor Mussey's successor.